Bihar will recruit over 75,000 police personnel to strengthen policing, ensure a crime-free society, and achieve a better police-to-population ratio in the country.

A cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna gave its nod to the creation of the posts of police personnel.

The positions come under the home department. The recruitment will be done in two phases.

“The cabinet has approved a proposal to create 75,545 posts in the home department (police branch). These will be recruited for the implementation of the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) Dial — 112 in the state and to strengthen the Bihar police to meet the needs of the increasing population,” cabinet secretariat department additional chief secretary S. Siddharth told reporters.

Bihar has 1.08 lakh police personnel.

Their number will increase to 1.84 lakh after the approved recruitment. Among other things, this will help in the implementation of ERSS Dial — 112 across the state.

The service is currently available only in Patna and a couple of district headquarters. The national average of police personnel is 115 per lakh of the population.

The Bihar Police is 44,000 personnel short of achieving this average. However, Nitish has set an aim of having 160 to 170 police personnel per lakh population.

The fresh rounds of recruitment will help it surpass the national average and move closer towards it.

The move will also help the Grand Alliance government in the state to fulfil its promise of providing 10 lakh jobs within a year.

It came to power in August this year after Nitish quit the NDA. The Bihar cabinet allotted Rs 50 crore for the purchase of benches and desks for 2,803 government primary schools.